


Answers to Your Questions

by Mici (noharlembeat)



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Character Study, Gen, M/M, pre-children's crusade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2017-11-22 21:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noharlembeat/pseuds/Mici
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy, laid out</p>
            </blockquote>





	Answers to Your Questions

The funny thing is that no one makes him go to school. Tommy thought that Eli, who has a pole so far up his ass that it probably gives him indigestion would be the first to give the order that as long as Tommy is a Young Avenger he has to attend some kind of institute of learning. But no one says a word, especially not Billy, who at this moment is attempting to finish his math homework without anyone's help, which Tommy knows is a lost cause. His baby brother can't do quadratics if his life depended on it, so it's a good thing that he's not planning on going to med school, he thinks.

Tommy is lying on his back on Billy's bed, his leg bouncing up and down so fast that it's just a blur, all that pent up energy from having nothing to do but run all day. Billy is looking more and more annoyed by the second, which makes Tommy want to explode too, or at least explode _something_. Finally Billy turns and glares. "Don't you have your own homework to do?"

Tommy didn't do his homework when he _had_ homework. "What, getting all pent up because Romeo can't come over until you've finished your algebra? Honestly little bro, I didn't think you'd be such a stickler for the rules, considering you're the one who wound up in jail for supers."

A paperweight shaped like a super-deformed Spiderman is hurled at Tommy's head, but he catches it long before it gets there easily. He doesn't even think about his reaction time anymore, which is better than anyone else's on the team, even Eli's who is a _Super-Soldier_. He doesn't think about his speed, either. It's just something he does, like shower or eat or masturbate. But not sleep. It's not that he can't sleep, or that he doesn't need it, because he does, but it's hard in coming, something that he wedges into his day between running and thinking. To everyone's suprise, Tommy thinks a lot. More than he would like.

"I can't look at this anymore. You want to watch a movie? My parents'll be out until late with my brothers, we can take over the TV."

Tommy looks a little surprised at the noise; because Billy doesn't usually suggest brotherly bonding anymore. They bonded over saving the jolly green giant. They bonded over pizza. Why does Billy keep trying? Tommy doesn't understand, but then, he doesn't say no to it, either.

"Okay, yeah. Just pick something that doesn't involve capes, will you? I'm so sick of looking at them."

******

_They think he can't hear them yelling, but he can. He's learned to move fast out of necessity, maybe, is what he first thinks. At the tender age of nine, Tommy Shepherd is too fast to be caught dead in his own house. His mother screams at him because he looks like his dad, but that's not true. He doesn't look like either of his parents, really - even though he has his father's dark hair. Sometimes he wonders if he were adopted, or switched at birth._

_His dad doesn't even like to look at him. But they're not bad people, just bad parents, and even as bad parents they like to pretend that Tommy can't hear them when they're yelling at each other at eleven at night. He doesn't want to sneak out. He's not afraid of the dark, or of getting caught. What he's afraid of is the speed that he's managing to hit, because once he outpaced a car._

_He's afraid, and he's excited. And both make him feel stupid, so he's staying inside, curled against his headboard and wishing that he could get just a little quiet. He can't sleep._

*****

People think that Tommy doesn't like Vision; people being Cassie and Kate, who spend way too much time gossiping. It's not that Tommy doesn't like Vision, or Jonas, or whatever, it's just that he's pretty much the only person - computer, whatever - who doesn't have school and they end up spending a lot of time together.

Surprisingly enough, it drives Tommy up the wall. 

It's just that Jonas, Vision, Cassie's personal Taylor Swift karaoke machine, whatever anyone was going to call him, doesn't _react_ to anything. Tommy does shit like make fun of him or throw things at him or make inappropriate comments about Cassie's breast size and Vision doesn't _do_ anything and it makes Tommy irritated, which leads to two options: complaining about it or ignoring him completely.

Cassie is fidgeting, now, and Tommy is watching Vision totally miss all the signals she's sending. They're talking about something in low voices, and Eli is clearly the only one who can hear them because he looks uncomfortable. If for no other reason than that, Tommy is actually paying attention.

Tommy doesn't have any feelings towards Cassie, except that she looks like she'll fill out all hot and stuff, and finally she blurts out, "I don't want you to make Jonas download porn anymore!"

Everyone is sitting around, and Eli is watching the news, and Tommy is vaguely aware that he is way more interested in the odd purple color that Patriot is turning then the fact that everyone has already sussed out that he's the culprit of this illicit pornography ring. Even though it takes Tommy a while to realize they are all looking at him, he knows that his reaction speed is to the point that probably only Billy notices that he wasn't exactly on when the comment was made. He snaps back, "What, are you afraid he'll leave you, Cass?"

He knows the comment hurts by the way Cassie grows a little, and the way her eyes narrow, and somewhere in the back of his head he wonders if that makes him an asshole, and further back he wonders if he cares. Billy is raising an eyebrow, and Tommy realizes that no, he doesn't care, but he apologizes anyway.

*****

_Tommy hates his computer class. It's boring and everyone's playing World Of Warcraft and they're all assholes anyway. He wonders if any of them know what it means to have a girlfriend, even though he doesn't know what it means to have a girlfriend. Thirteen year old girls are way more interested in pretending they want to have a boyfriend than actually having one._

_And Tommy isn't sure he wants one, anyway. They seem like a lot of work. And he can never tell what they want. So after class, when everyone is discussing WoW or whatever, he approaches Elizabeth Davis, who he's caught laughing and smiling his way before._

_That night he sneaks over to her house, and after climbing up the tree outside her bedroom they kiss, once, and he decides that he likes it. Girls are soft. His mom isn't soft but his mom isn't a girl, and this one doesn't make fun of the fact that his dark hair is starting to go white. Tommy isn't sure why. He thinks, sometimes, that he's outrunning his own hair color._

_He's not surprised, though, when she doesn't speak to him anymore._

*****

Kate and Eli are on a date. Tommy isn't sure why this is so annoying, because it's not like he _loves_ Kate or anything. Mostly he went on a date with her to annoy Eli, who makes the best faces. But lately annoying Eli hasn't had the same amount of joy that it normally brings, and Tommy isn't sure why. Suddenly he doesn't want to be out in the street as a creeper watching Eli and Kate have a good time.

Suddenly he wants to be with Billy. 

He realizes, running invisible circles around Miss Prude and Captain Oblivious (who are only thought of that way because he is getting _really_ annoyed) that yeah, sure, okay they're all friends and happy teenaged heroes and he misses Molly Hayes like burning, the fact is that Tommy doesn't really belong here. He doesn't belong in this _happy place_. And Billy may pretend to be happy and shiny and _good_ but he sees the dark parts of his twin, and that makes him tolerable.

*****

_Tommy repeats the words over and over again, like the cops will get it if he says it enough. "It was an accident," he says. "I lost control," he adds. But the cops don't care because he blew up his school, which is pretty bad, Tommy guesses._

_The woman from Xavier's school, though, she comes in like she's leading an army instead of three blond bimbos who all look identical, and they all sit around him and he recounts again that it was an accident, but he's getting the feeling that they don't believe him. They try and recruit him, but Tommy isn't crazy. He's not going to some fucked up school for muties and no one can make him._

_He keeps saying it was an accident, but no one is buying it and he's ready to _run_ when the three blonds _look_ at him, and suddenly, and damn if he can figure out _how_ , he's in this prison, and one of them, or all three, he can't tell the difference and it's freaking him out, say, "Worthless. At least admit it."_

_He wants to protest. He's not worthless. He didn't lose control and he meant to blow them sky-high. He knows that people thinks he's crazy, but no one's ever wanted to hear his side of the story, anyway._

******

Teddy is leaving Billy's apartment, and Tommy is sitting on the steps, his head against the cold stone. He looks up the length of Teddy's body, Teddy who is clearly confused and looking down and wondering what Tommy is doing, and Tommy zooms to stand behind Teddy, like a skinny, single person wall. Teddy turns, too slow, and now Tommy is standing against the door to the building, leaning there, possessive. 

"So what's up," Tommy says, casually. 

Teddy doesn't look impressed. "Going home," he says, but he isn't moving, at least not at a speed that's even reasonable for Tommy. "What are you doing here?"

"Being family," Tommy replies. Teddy looks almost bored, and Tommy, for the first time in a while, is feeling angry instead of just annoyed. Normally he likes Teddy. Normally. The other boy clearly makes Billy happy, if nothing else. But he's starting to think that they all underestimate him. They all look at him and see Billy's face, and they forget where they pulled him out of. Suddenly, Tommy wants to remind Teddy of that fact, and he moves to grip Teddy's wrist in his hand. "Hey," he says, in a low voice, his hand vibrating a little, "I like you, but my brother, he _loves_ you, and if you fuck it up." Tommy doesn't trail off. He finishes his sentence exactly where he does for a reason. He knows that Teddy will fill in the gaps.

"What the _hell_ ," Teddy says, clearly confused, and sort of angry. Tommy finds that refreshing. A reaction. Something. Anything. "I'm not going to...and when the hell did you get so protective anyway?" Teddy pulls his arm away, and he's strong enough to do it. 

Tommy shrugs. There's something about that shrug that he knows will make Teddy disregard him again, but that's okay. He's gotten his point across. "I'm just saying."

Teddy shakes his head as he stuffs his hands in his pockets, and trudges away. Tommy knows that's all the warning he'll need, which is good, because it's all the warning he'll give.

****

_Tommy is seven, or eight, the first time he remembers Billy, or Billy remembers him. He isn't sure which; he's pretty sure that the other boy is just a dream which technically, since he's dreaming, he is. He doesn't remember much, but when his mom wakes him up he wants to go back to sleep. He knows that whatever happened in that dream, it was kind of safe. He wants to keep that feeling of safeness forever._

_So Billy's face, on the other side of the juvie wall, is only surprising in one sense; that he exists, and that he didn't come sooner._

_But sleep doesn't come easy anymore. He wedges it between reality and dream, somewhere, but in both places he can't outrun it, no matter how many barriers he breaks._


End file.
